We lived through the ’80s and ’90s and spent a lot of time with the era’s greatest hits–drove them, raced them, even knew them when they still had that new car smell. We fondly remember shopping for Kamei air dams, Hella lamps and 14-inch tires.
But were the cars of those times really that rad?
We wondered that ourselves, so …
My 2nd car was an '84 Camaro sport coupe, no AC, auto, 305 with carb. In 1987 as a 20yr old I was loving life. Next car was another '84 same options but with AC after deciding to move to New Orleans after the Navy and I got out of the car w/o AC and went NOPE.
At least this one someone had stuck part of the Z-28 ground effects on it.
Sweet. I bought at the bottom of the depreciation curve and only had to sit on it for 20 years to be able to make my money back!
As my first car, thirdgen trans ams will always be my favorite regardless of how terrible they are.
This was to be expected as us GenX'ers hit our peak earning years and our nostalgia goes into overdrive. It's happening with Fox Mustangs, as well.
Some of these cars can be had cheap, but old age has not treated most of them well.
iansane said:Sweet. I bought at the bottom of the depreciation curve and only had to sit on it for 20 years to be able to make my money back!
As my first car, thirdgen trans ams will always be my favorite regardless of how terrible they are.
I passed a car a lot like that the other day on I-4. It was good to see it out and about.
Noddaz said:Some of these cars can be had cheap, but old age has not treated most of them well.
I have a friend that's somewhat looking and it seems we're at the point now where you have absolute basket cases that people want 5k for or really nice examples for 12-20k. It's crazy.
I do have to admit that those cars are some of the best Vegas GM ever built... 
These are the coveted cars of my youth, and I feel like I have a deep personal connection to them. Growing up, we had friends and family with a variety of 3rd Gens:
-My mom's friend had a black 1982 Z28 with T-Tops. She used to take us to the beach in that thing all the time, and it ruled. I still remember getting yelled at to put towels down on the seats and not to get sand in the car.
-Dad's slightly nutty friend that we'll call "Crazy Bobby" had an electric blue 1988 IROC 350. I once spent some extended time as a 6 year old stuffed in the spare tire well on the way to a theme park in a neighboring state because "he forgot he'd take me too" when he was babysitting my sister and I. That was the last time Crazy Bobby babysat us. Also, that was when I was introduced to what a Flowmaster was, because I heard that transverse V8 soundtrack all day long. Explains a lot about who I am today, actually. Crazy Bobby may or may not have gone to prison on unrelated crimes a few months later....
-My sister's ex-husband (and by extension, my sister) had a 1988 light blue Firebird Formula WS6 with the TPI 305 and an automatic. My sister would take me on Saturday mornings to do my paper route in that thing sometimes, and then we would go to breakfast after. That car was fun and had a great factory sound system with this weird "gain" slider on the dash that would make the Hair Metal sound extra hairy.
Around 2001, I bought a basket case 1983 Z28 for $300 out of the old weekly Want Ad magazine. That thing had the LG4 305, a T-5 manual, T-Tops, and the optional composite "lightweight" hood. It even came with a 350 plucked out of a 1988 GMC van! I ditched it because the title that I was promised when I bought it never materialized and I ended up replacing it with my 2nd Gen Trans Am. I wish I kept that one, because it was solid and had a lot going for it. If I had to get another one, I'd go with an IROC, preferably a blue one like Crazy Bobby had. As terrible a babysitter as he was, he had great taste in cars!
20th anniversary Trans Am
I would love to have a 20th Anniversary Trans-Am, as I drove a test mule while working for Joe Varde's IMSA Firestone Firehawk team when he combined teams with Prototype Automotive Services out of Farmington Hills, Mi.
I was still a teenager, and they sent me out in the boss's test mule, a 1986 T/A with the V6 turbo, and a laptop in the passenger seat, to get some non-detergent oil to break in some motors on the dyno for our upcoming race at Road America.
Had some guy pull up next to me at a light in a brand new Corvette. Didn't know a thing about turbo lag, or holding the brakes with the left and giving it a little gas, but I still managed to run him down rather quickly. I like to think he went directly to where he bought it and complained about it being slower than a Trans-Am.
I sure hope values are going up.
Yeah I've seen a few rolling around recently and it's brought back some fond memories. I was 18 and working as a porter at a Pontiac dealer. The transmission guy had me do an extra "test drive" on an 89 GTA he'd finished.
Man... just MAN
And in 2008 I was *this close* to getting a GTA or Formula, but my desire to get out from under student loans got in the way. I have no ridiculous notions about either of the cars still being in good shape by now, if I had.
I don't recall how I felt at the time, but for at least 20 years now, the ground effects GM cars (IROC, GTA) look way better to me than the ground effects Mustang GTs. I'd take back my 5.0 5-speed LX convertible any day. But I'd still take iansane's Formula over that 5.0.
The 3rd gen camaro is the best looking Camaro/Firebird by a long shot. No sarcasm
In reply to racerfink :
IIRC, The 20th anniversary cars are still the fastest T/A ever built and were faster than the Corvette and the GN at the time.
Grand National engine with Bonneville cylinder heads so it would fit between the strut towers.
The first L98 350 GTA I saw, the owner told me it'd knock down 28 mpg on a trip. This was around '93. I thought he was a bald-faced liar. That was just too nuts. Little did I know, that's about what they'd do.
It was cheap when I bought it.
Tony Sestito said:-My sister's ex-husband (and by extension, my sister) had a 1988 light blue Firebird Formula WS6 with the TPI 305 and an automatic. My sister would take me on Saturday mornings to do my paper route in that thing sometimes, and then we would go to breakfast after. That car was fun and had a great factory sound system with this weird "gain" slider on the dash that would make the Hair Metal sound extra hairy.
Maui Blue. Literally one of my favorite colors GM has ever produced.
I liked the 92rs I took for test drive back in 95? My only faults were the 4800rpm wot shifts, ergos were a weird mix of falling into the drivers seat and having to roll out like a corvette, the airbag wheel was an abomination, and those Mac strut shock towers that prohibited working on anything in the engine bay...
In reply to iansane :
Theirs looked just like that, but in the Formula flavor:
My sister has awful luck with cars, and gets in accidents all the time. This one got demolished when a F150 smashed into the back of it while she was sitting at a stoplight. It was so clean before that.
In reply to Tony Sestito :
At least you weren't riding in the spare tire well at that time.
In reply to ShawnG :
Yeah, the slope of the F-body hood was a problem.
P.A.S. was also working on a prototype of the Bonneville SSEi at that same time. We used that test mule to go back and forth to our hotel. That mule was a turbo'd 3.8L though. They became supercharged by the time they hit production.
The only one i'd want would be the turbo trans am pace car. Actually I really want one lol
edit: I guess it was the 20th anniversary
These are the coveted cars of my youth, and I feel like I have a deep personal connection to them. Growing up, we had friends and family with a variety of 3rd Gens:
In my area people liked Monte Carlos and GNs way more but there was a purple camaro that I thought was cool af.
I really liked my 91 Firebird. Started as a challenge car in 2013 and kept it for 9 years. Autocross, track days, road trips, it was great at everything.
I was riding in the backseat of my friends 86 305 when we all discovered what an Impala SS was. We were in a 4 lane 50mph zone and this dad happened alongside us on the left in this big black sedan, matched speed and looked over at us, past his wife. She wife was reading like a magazine or something in the front seat and there was a kid in the back playing with an airplane or something iconic like that. We were three kids in our red Camaro and so my buddy hit it. And then he undramatically walked away from us. We were all three open mouthed
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